The Blood Chunin
by psyco wolf
Summary: A storm rolls in on a once peaceful, yet bored village hidden in the leaves, and what comes with it turns a boring day into a mission that could decide the fate of everyone in the village, a mission that only Naruto can complete.
1. The Visitors

_This Fanfic is made during the time of episode 180-190, so before you say "why doesn't he just go nine-tailed fox" I thought I'd tell you he can't because of the time, this is set before Shippuden and he has not got any of the skills from that series_

_Thank you and enjoy._

The sun beamed down on the village, the leaves falling from the trees added a sense of tranquillity to the scene that was only broken by the travellers entering and exiting the village.

The missions they brought were only D rank with the occasional C rank that the Genin would try to get assigned to first as it was the only excitement they can get. This, however, had nothing to do with a lack of missions, there seemed to be a flood of missions coming in to the village hidden in the leaves, the problem accrued with the dry spell of C+ ranked missions.

Naruto was having a harder time than everyone else, at least they could train, but Jiraiya has still not been heard from and so he could not go off for more training.

This left Naruto wondering the village, waiting for word of him and going on the odd mission if any of the other Genin were absent from their squads, or if Tsunade decided to group him with a team that may need his skills for the mission. Or sometimes just to get him out of the way.

Little did Naruto know he was about to get a world of action land right on his doorstep.

At the time, Hinata, Kiba, Akamaru and Shino were reporting back from the last C rank mission to have come into the village.

Kiba yelled enthusiastically "Alright! Another mission completed, a bit too easy though I thought they'd put up a better fight than that, kind of depressing that twenty grown men couldn't even beat the four of us huh Akamaru?"

Akamaru replied enthusiastically "woof!"

"Th…they were just bandits Kiba" The frail voice of Hinata came quietly from beside him; "they didn't have any Jutsu, only swords and kunai."

"A fight's a fight" Kiba replied defensively; "anyway we made it fair, we didn't use any Jutsu, Shino didn't even use his bugs."

The wind was uneasy now; the leaves crashed to the ground as they were beaten down, and, in the distance, storm clouds approached and threatened to break the happiness in the village, this made the more experienced Chunin and the Fifth Hokage feel a very uneasy chill creep down their spines.

The Fifth stood at the window gazing out at the oncoming threat, her arms were folded and the look on her face made Shizune worry. They stood there for some time, quietly contemplating what to do about this unknown threat, and whether it was even worth worrying about.

Then, suddenly Naruto broke the steady silence, "Grandma Tsunade!" Naruto walked up to the desk and slams his hands down onto it aggressively; "I just heard you gave the C rank mission that just came in to Shino's group again!"

The Fifth Hokage turned around and responded defensively "Team 8 is ready and very reliable, they've successfully completed most of their missions and have a full team of three, and you have a team of 1" Tsunade brought out a file labelled "Team 7" and threw it onto the desk, she then continued, opening the file as she did to reveal the "successful missions" section; "and you Naruto haven't completed one since you split up with Sasuke and Sakura!" the folder revealed only a handful of completed missions from before the Chunin exams.

Then the Fifth Hokage turned to another section of the folder titled "damages", and then continued once again, "Not to mention Naruto that every time you go on a mission you either beat up the person you're meant to be protecting or destroy most the village with that damn Rasengan of yours".

Naruto interrupted, "No way grandma Tsunade, name the last place I destroyed!"

"Ha! About time I get an easy task" The Fifth searched through the receipts and sorted one of them to the side, taking the rest of the flood of tickets to make her point: "the land of water you destroyed the top deck of the new bridge trying to save Sasuke from the ice mirror jutsu, in the land of rice fields you destroyed a….

"OK" Naruto sighed "I get it but how am I suppose to get stronger if all I do is walk around bored all day, I mean at least give me something to do."

"OK Naruto I've got a job for you," replied the Fifth, "why don't you go and help guard the front gate there should already be some Chunin there, they could use some help".

By the time the Fifth had finished Naruto had already left and was yelling through the window, "Thanks grandma Tsunade!"

"Why can't Jiraiya and his students ever use the doors, now back to the task at hand…" the fifth's face fell as she remembered.

The storm that was in the distance had completely covered the village and turned the streets dull and black, the storm had begun and whatever the strange presence that The Fifth had sensed was closer and she could tell that there were four of them, skills unknown; she could only pray they were the sand ninja.

The fifth Hokage muttered under her breath, "With no Jonin in the village and only a handful of Chunin we can only pray, Jiraiya, where are you when we need you!"

Meanwhile, Naruto had quickly arrived at the gate where three Chunin guards ran, fleeing to the small wooden hut they had been provided, complaining about the sudden turn in the weather they sat at the desk and watched as Naruto approached. "Hey Naruto" shouted one of the Chunin guards "what can we do for you"

Naruto replied enthusiastically "Grandma Tsunade sent me to give you guys a hand, so what do you want me to do, Kotetsu, check people for weapons, check there identification".

Kotetsu interrupted "no nothing like that Naruto we just sit around and look for suspicious characters, like people wielding giant swords or people from ninja villages with the headbands on;" Kotetsu gazed in thought and put his hand on his chin "then again no shinobi would be dumb enough to walk into the village with their headbands on and giant weapons on show".

"What like those four" Naruto pointed out objectively "there are four guys coming this way"

"Don't even joke Naruto we have no Jonin to protect us if anyone really does attack only seven Chunin, you and team 8 who just got back from a mission"

Naruto responded nervously "no joke there are four shinobi coming this way wearing headbands and two of them have really big swords"

The leaf Chunin ran out hastily and lined up, the look on their faces dropped as they confirmed what Naruto has said, four people were walking towards them slowly, just like the approaching storm they were an unknown factor, "they could just be passing through, they could have been ally's lending a hand, or…"

Before Kotetsu finished Naruto interrupted "or they could be coming to destroy us because we have no Jonin" Naruto gulped.

Kotetsu turned around to one of the other Chunin and gave his order "go and get the Fifth Hokage if these people really do want to start a fight she will be our only hope!"

The Chunin responded "right!" he then span around so that he faced the Hokage's building and jumped onto the roof tops in a desperate attempt to get to her in time.

Naruto turned around to face the visitors once again; he then shouted "one of them has disappeared!" the remaining two Chunin turned around to check, then in the blink of an eye the missing visitor returned, carrying some dark object.

Naruto scrunched up his eyes to try and get a better view of the object, but the Chunin already knew what the visitor was holding, then Naruto realized, "I…it's the Chunin you sent out.. But…" Naruto looked behind him trying to find a sign of what happened there was none, "it must have happened in an instance" realized Naruto.

The visitors were at the gates by now and the one who had attacked the messenger Chunin chucked him over the threshold, Naruto and the two remaining Chunin jumped back and drew their kunai knives to try and buy some time for them to figure out how to defeat the visitors. They had made there intentions known by attacking the messenger Chunin that Kotetsu had sent to get the Fifth, they clearly did not want the Hokage to interfere yet.

Now that they were close the visitors could clearly be recognized as shinobi, they were each dressed in the same long cloak that spread from their necks down to their feet which were barely visible, they wore large steel-capped boots that had their village logo painfully carved into them, although these boots were not visible from the angle they were now stood in the three leaf shinobi had seen them earlier on.

The village symbol was not recognized by Naruto, it was a strange image, the main part was a tree, and then on the trunk were some strange markings that Naruto could not make out.

The visitor's mouths were concealed by the top part of their cloaks which, combined with the headbands, created a shadow that consumed the rest of their faces, making it impossible to see their eyes. Also due to the cloak, there was no way to determine their physique or muscles mass, making it impossible to tell just how strong they were.

The cloak was plain black, but its usefulness in concealing their bodies, faces and even any ninja tools or weapons they may have had on them was unmistakably invaluable. In fact the only thing that set the four apart was their hair and the large sword that two of the visitors had strapped to their backs, the swords were identical, they each were longer than the person carrying them but were stretched across their back diagonally so that they could be carried off-hand.

Other than that the swords were not all that unique, they had no guard and the hilt came directly out of the blade and had no shape whatsoever it was just rounded to fit to their hands, the blade was flat edged, not curved at the end and the sword, from what they could tell, was double sided.

The most unique and off-putting thing was that there was no sheaf, the swords were both held in blood stained bandages, this was the only thing that separated the two swordsmen, the blood patterns were different for each sword.

The swordsmen both even shared the same haircut, they had grey hair, which was spiked up and looked so firm that they could use them as senbon needles. The other two, who were in-between the two swordsmen, had different hairstyles from this, one had rebellious black hair that stretched out in random directions, almost in search of light, and the other, who they presumed was a woman due to the hairstyle, had fair, soft hair that had been well brushed and tied behind her head in a ponytail.

The remaining leaf shinobi stayed in their stances, it had been five minutes since the visitors had even moved. Then, with no warning the first strike was made, in the blink of an eye three of the visitors had struck, knocking out the two Chunin and sending Naruto flying into the nearest building. The villagers had already noticed the visitors and had, up until now, just watched with curious faces, however this serious act of aggression had changed all of that, they stood staring, until their silence was broken by one woman who screamed, after that they all ran to try and find any leaf shinobi that they could. Through the mist of dust and fleeing people a shadowy figure arose, the figure walked towards the four, now re-grouped, visitors.

From the roof tops the four Chunin that had been protecting other areas of the village arrived to see what all the commotion was about, after seeing their three comrades beaten on the floor they attacked the visitors. Their strikes and jutsu were perfect, a barrage of kunai knives and shuriken hit their targets dead on and shredded the visitors, and then the paper bombs that were attached to the kunai exploded causing whatever scraps that remained to be destroyed even further.

Then one of the Chunin spoke "I can't believe that someone who could fall for such a basic trick could have defeated Kotetsu".

"Maybe we caught them off guard" replied the other Chunin "I mean no shinobi is perfect and they didn't seem to be from around here, maybe they didn't know the technique". The other Chunin moaned nervously and not even the Chunin who said it believed the theory.

As the dust from the explosion cleared the truth was revealed, they were only logs, and the real visitors used the substitution jutsu and had been behind the four Chunin for some time waiting for them to realize their mistake.

The visitors struck the four Chunin down, they moved as one entity and with one strike from the palm of their hands caused the Chunin to cough up blood and then seize over in confusion of what just took place. The shadowy figure was clear to see now as the Fifth Hokage, the four visitors returned to their position just inside the gates to the village, they stood there, just as they had before they attacked Naruto and Kotetsu, waiting.

The storm was now almost at it's peak but showed no signs of ending or ever giving up, the thunder was so fierce that it shattered windows and the lightning violently lashed out and struck the Cliff side where the Hokage's faces were carved, leaving a huge scar that lead through into each face. The falling rubble from the mountain caused even more to fall, leaving rock slides that devastated the buildings, luckily no one was killed due to everyone evacuating to the top of the mountain. This evacuation left only the injured Chunin, the four visitors, Naruto, the Fifth and team 8, who were helping with the evacuation, in the village.

The Fifth approached the four visitors, then the visitor with the black hair stepped forward and spoke, still hiding his face in the shadow cause by his cloak and headband "you must be the Fifth Hokage of the village hidden in the leaves" the black haired visitor's body didn't move, it was like the voice was coming from nowhere as there was no movement or sign of any body language either. "We are the shinobi from the village hidden in the blood; we have come to assess your village's shinobi and to determine at what level you are currently fighting" the voice didn't have any emotion or any uniqueness about it, it was the kind of voice that would be heard in the village everyday, and you wouldn't pay any attention to.

The Fifth responded in great disapproval "assess us? What are we cattle to you? Are you trying to see if we are strong enough for your use, or if we pose a threat? Answer me! What do you want with the shinobi of the leaf village?"

"Our motives will become apparent later on until then all we can do is assess you on you combat abilities and tell you were you stand compared with the rest of the hidden villages" the black haired blood ninja still stood just one step in front of the other visitors.

Without moving or even seeming to breathe he spoke "so far we have assessed that your Chunin are above the standards of the Chunin from other villages and yet are disappointing in the fact that they let there guard down after they thought they had defeated us, even though they were suspicious about our demise, however, there is one Genin still conscious and impressively he is waiting for the right time to attack, trying to catch us off guard when we speak with you"

Suddenly Naruto sprung from the building he had been kicked into and launched a surprise attack with his shadow clone jutsu, creating ten clones armed with kunai knives, the black haired blood ninja commented on his tactic and use of high level jutsu "hmm interesting", even though he said it his voice lacked the emotion of anyone interested in anything.

Then he put up his left arm, and without moving his body in any way dispatched the ten clones with next to no effort. Then, out of the building's shadowy wreckage flew three kunai, the black haired blood ninja easily evaded them with a simple lean to one side "clever but you'll have to do better than that to defeat me" his voice had a slight sense of emotion now, like the better Naruto was the more his emotions began to show.

With no warning the kunai transformed into three Naruto clones "don't underestimate me!" the clones shouted then through yet another volley of kunai knives towards the black haired blood ninja from behind. The blood ninja, for the first time, showed his eyes as he lifted out of the shadow of his cape and into the sight of the Fifth, with a huge grin on his face from the pure thrill of an exciting fight he jumped avoiding the kunai that Naruto's clones had thrown and using charka strings to pull hem back into his hand, he then spun around and threw the kunai back at the clones.

He landed back in his original state with his head held up high revealing his blood red eyes and excitable grin, the kunai hit Naruto's clones, making them burst into a cloud of thick white smoke. The black haired blood ninja turned to the ruble filled building "that was impressive, combining shadow clone jutsu with a transformation jutsu, for that you can stay conscious to watch me assess the Hokage".

The black haired blood ninja jumped into the wreckage pulled out Naruto by the scruff of his neck and dragged him, kicking and screaming, back to the rest of the blood ninja. One of the swordsmen un sheaved his sword, this worried Naruto and he began fidgeting even more.

The swordsman then tied the blood-dyed cloth that his sword was sheaved in tightly around Naruto to stop him from escaping. Although the prison was made of cloth it was stronger than anything Naruto had ever felt, and had not even been knotted yet was rigid and immovable.

The Weather had not decayed yet and seemed to have no end, the torrential rain and harsh winds battered the cloaks of the four blood ninja and yet barely seemed to affect Tsunade, who hadn't moved since Naruto had launched his surprise attack.

Then, another of the Blood ninja stepped forward, it was the white haired girl, she had still not revealed her face, but there was fidgeting under her cloak.

The cloak then fell, revealing what, presumably, all of the blood ninja were armed with: the clothes she wore were very basic, they were just blue cloth that was armour plated, much like the ninja headband, in places with no joints so not to impair any movement, the armour, however was only on the front of her limbs, not on her main body or back, there were no shoulder pads and only really had the metal plating on the tops of her hands, the top of her arms and legs, the armour plated boots covered her feet. The plates on her lower arms had two separate halves of their ninja village symbol, as if the two plates were supposed to go together as a shield.

The tools she was equipped with were basic, she had kunai knives, shuriken and strangely she had a short katana that was attached horizontally across the back of her waist.

The female blood ninja now stood holding her cloak at arms length waiting for her comrade, the black haired blood ninja, to take it, as he did her arm dropped back down beside her and she drew her short katana, holding it backwards like a kunai knife. She then took her stance; she then checked her armour, almost compulsively.

After doing this and then standing back up straight again she revealed her face, she too had blood red eyes and a childish, excitable grin. She spoke in a well spoken posh accent "I do fancy a bit of girl-on-girl" she giggled to herself then continued "well shall we begin, don't keep the boys waiting now" all the while she was tapping the tip of her foot on the ground anxiously.

The tapping of her foot got faster and faster until… she vanished. Tsunade wasn't fooled by such an action and realized it was super-human speed that made her vanish; no act of magic or jutsu, the strike came quickly, vertically and with enough power to shatter a boulder.

The strike had missed, at the last minute; Tsunade had leapt back, preventing the strike from hitting her, "a good thing to;" thought Tsunade, "if that would have hit me, there's no way I would have stood back up". The crater from the strike lunged more than a meter down, and there, stood in the centre without so much as a dirt smudge on her, stood the female blood ninja, she looked up at Tsunade and teased once more "what's up love? Cat got your tongue?" whiskers grew on the side of her face and her teeth sharpened as if she was beginning to transform, the force from her charka grew so much that the earth around her started to tremble and her nails became thick and pointed "if a cat really did steal your tongue I could catch it for you" her voice was deeper now as she pulled up her newly formed claws "I'll even skin it for free"

"Ran!" the black haired blood ninja appeared to be calling the name of the female blood ninja "what are you doing! We aren't supposed to kill them yet, so get back to normal form, if you reveal your powers too early on we may have problems further down the line."

The blood ninja Ran's face dropped she seemed almost upset at the order she was given "bloody hell you mean I can't even kill this bitch?" Ran had dropped her guard for the brief moment she spoke with her comrade, Tsunade saw this opportunity and attacked, unleashing a brutal, full charka kick that struck the surprised blood ninja's face dead on, and sent her flying through the wall of the leaf village and out the other end into the forest, destroying several trees and creating a massive scar in the land, the blood ninja with the black hair sighed at his comrades mistake. Ran was now collapsed at the end of the scar almost a quarter of a mile away from her original position in the crater she made.

Suddenly Ran tilted her head forward to look at Tsunade, her eyes were wide open and the grin on her face grew until the overall look made Tsunade worried, Ran looked almost psychotic. "The bitch kicked me Conall" the response seemed to be aimed at the black haired blood ninja.

"I know Ran, but remember we just need to measure their skill nothing more" Conall responded to his name and tried to calm Ran down, the black haired blood ninja was called Conall, and the female ninja was Ran, two names had revealed themselves but there was still the case of the two swordsmen blood ninja.

"Ok, so what if I assess her a little too much? Do you think Conrí would mind me killing her? Well I'll just try anyway what's he going to do? Ground me?"

By this time Ran had already got back up and was preparing for another attack "I can't believe that bitch landed a shot on me, give her a seven for power though that was almost as good as yours Conall. However, my speed will beat her brawn any day of the week".

"You know that Conrí won't be happy, but if you must, I guess he won't touch you, you being his favourite and all" replied Conall sarcastically.

"Still jealous I see Conall" Ran gloated as she tapped the tip of her foot again anxiously "well anyway, round two has just begun, I'd better get in there huh?" with the last comment she darted off at Tsunade, faster than before though. The force from her starting step left a blast crater and as she passed through the arch made by Tsunade's kick an even greater chunk was removed.

Tsunade realized there was no time to dodge or even put up a guard to this attack, so she did the one thing she could, thank god that she dropped her knife when Tsunade kicked her.

The strike was a firm and powerful kick that launched Tsunade straight up in the air, the altitude gained only reflected the inhuman power and strength of these shinobi. During the air Tsunade tried to re-balance and get a sight of her opponent's next move, it came faster than she anticipated and this time from above. A hammer kick that for some reason didn't come as a shock, it was like she saw the moves coming but was too slow to do anything about them.

Tsunade crashed into the ground creating an impact that took most the surrounding building in with it. Tsunade stood up and managed to get out of the way of the next shot in time, but only because Ran had gone back down to get her knife. "This time you're done for" Ran spoke to Tsunade with almost a sense of disappointment at her inability to keep up "well maybe someone from the sand village will be able to keep up with me".

Ran jumped back out of the impact crater from the last attack, then, grasping her short katana with both hands prepared for her finishing blow, her eyes changed, there was determination in them now, not like before, now she had to concentrate to make sure the blow was precise.

Naruto was still tied up and unable to move, even his Nine-tailed fox powers were restricted by the cloth that bound him, the Chunin were still unconscious and would be for some time.

Suddenly the weather changed and the storm began to recede, as if the storm was as good as done, however there was one last lash of the storm left before its business was done in the village hidden in the leaves. Tsunade prepared herself, even unleashing the charka built up behind the diamond shape on her head; it would be a take-all fight, Tsunade versus Ran.

"Well bitch it's been a real riot but time for you to die, you shouldn't have even released all that charka, it won't save you from my eyes" Ran's eyes began to change, the physical appearance was no different but something else came forth at Tsunade.

The familiar sensation hit her as she realized, it was something similar to Orochimaru's intent to kill, but this was stronger, this made Orochimaru's intent feel like a gentle breeze, it was more than intent, it was fact! Intent has only a slight hold on the target, slowing them, but this made Tsunade tremble, it was, raw fear.

Without the ability to move, her heart beating so fast it felt like it might rip from her chest and it getting increasingly hard to breathe, Tsunade felt she was done for. Ran darted off of her position at Tsunade, this time it was slower, almost human speed Tsunade gasped for breathe, Naruto screamed "Grandma Tsunade!" but Tsunade couldn't hear it, all she could concentrate on was her impending doom

The short Katana gleamed as the sun rose in the background, the knife struck; blood spread through the air, the fight was over.


	2. The Fight Ends!

Blood dripped on the floor, the constant tapping noise as the latest drop of blood hit the reservoir could drive someone insane, luckily, there was more to think about the drip, drip, drip of blood. The blade that Ran had lunged at The Fifth had hit, but not the target that was intended.

The shocked and confused Fifth Hokage fell to her knees as the raw fear jutsu ended and the blood ninja Ran stood also confused by unforeseen turn of events. As Ran's view wondered upwards she realized that her attack had been stopped, Conall, the black haired blood ninja stood, he had taken the hit in the place of the Fifth Hokage.

After seeing Conall standing there in the place of her prey, Ran jumped back a few meters to re-assess what had just taken place.

"Conall what the hell are you doing?" Ran's furious question only emphasized her disappointment in her failed attack, "that bitch was all mine until you butted in." Her blood red eyes spat out her rage at Conall.

Conall sighed then replied to his overly-eager comrade, "I only did what I was ordered too, and if you weren't so busy enjoying that fight you would have heard it too." Conall pointed over at the gateway, where a shadowy figure stood, with short, soft black hair, slowly closing in on the blood-filled area.

"C…Co…Conrí." Ran's pale white face and shocked expression told everyone just what they wanted to know about this shadowy figure, from previous conversations between the blood ninja about this character all that can be said is this: whoever or whatever this shadowy figure is it's got some kind of hold on these ninja. Ran managed to chuck together some words to defend her actions, "the bitch kicked me Conrí, and I couldn't let her get away with that, I…"

Before Ran could finish she realized what the other blood Chunin had and dropped what they were doing to fall in line, in the blink of an eye the four ninja were back in their ordered line with the two swordsmen at either end. This released Naruto and left The Fifth away from them trying to regain her strength, Naruto, after realizing he was free, leapt over to help and regroup.

With their clothes fixed and their heads hidden in the shadow of their cloaks and headbands they waited for their next order. They stood as if nothing had happened, almost like the crushed houses, unconscious Chunin and blood-soaked floor around them wasn't their fault. The shadowy figure had been waiting for this, and on them doing so stepped out of the shadows to reveal his identity.

The shadowy figure was a young boy, no younger than Naruto. The boy had fair black hair, much like Conall, however his was all the same length, the strangest thing about the boy was his childish grin that almost drew all attention away from his blood red eyes and almost stopped The Fifth from noticing his long black cloak, armoured boots and ninja headband. He was also a ninja from the village hidden in the blood; however he was a lot younger than the four who came before him.

The boy held up his hand to greet his comrades, "hi Blink, I see you've been getting carried away with the assessment again" the boy's face changed as he looked around at the extensive damages and blood, he was almost casual about the destruction laid out before him, the boy sighed and continued talking to Ran, "well looks like I've got to go fix what you lot have botched up."

"Conrí I…" Ran tried once again to justify her actions to this new face, almost as if her life depended on it.

Meanwhile, Naruto was still trying to help The Fifth as the after affects of the raw fear jutsu had left her short of breath and immobilized, "Grandma Tsunade, are your OK? What was that? Can you stand?"

"Naruto, shut up, just help me get up so I can take another crack at the bitch that did this to me!" The Fifth responded violently and tried to get back on her feet but was struggling as the affects of the raw fear jutsu were still in effect.

"Right now let's get this mess sorted out" the boy spoke again, he spoke with a well-spoken posh accent, much like Ran's, "Conall go help the Fifth Hokage get back on her feet, Blink, go apologize."

"But she started it!" Ran spoke back defensively, "she kicked me I couldn't let her tarnish the good name of the blood ninja or my own for that matter, the bitch deserved to get some sense knocked into her!"

Only a few seconds later Conall began his complaints, they almost seemed like school children, "but she was the one that kicked the shit out the Hokage, it's not my fault she couldn't control herself!"

"Conall it's hard enough for me to get her to apologize, I thought at least you'd be mature about this, c'mon we've got to make a good first impression" The blood ninja Conrí explained things to his comrades and tried to re-assure them, "oh and Blink you started it by beating up their Chunin, destroying their village, and calling her a bitch."

Conall, upon hearing the reasoning behind it went off to help The Fifth as he was ordered. Ran came too, with her head facing to the side and a childish look of disapproval on her face she apologized, "I'm sorry, you old bitch".

Conrí forced a smile and tried to see the silver lining, "well at least she apologized" the blood ninja then turned to The Fifth to try and explain the situation. By this time Conall had attempted to help The Fifth to her feet, grabbing her by the shoulders and lifting her, at arms length, to his height. Normally, this would have been helpful, however, Conall was 6 ft 05 and Tsunade wasn't even 6ft.

"Conall that isn't helpful put her down" Conrí, with his hand slapped on his face, tried to make the best of a bad job, "Ran could you line back up please it may help if none of us are in any position to attack, otherwise when their ninja get back…"

"Hello people" before he Conrí could finish, a familiar voice glided in as a strange figure landed on top of the hut near the gate, "sorry I'm late, I got lost on the path of life again".

Kakashi had just returned form his last mission, he looked at Conrí, who was waving to him with the large childish grin he had arrived with, and waved back, returning the childish grin.

After a few minutes of them both standing there stupidly and waving, Kakashi finally decided to take a look around the leaf village, after seeing the destruction, the battle craters, the four ninja that were coincidentally dressed like the boy he had just been waving to for 3 minutes and that one of them was holding the battle-worn Hokage, with a puddle of blood underneath her, decided to fight back.

He flicked up his headband from across his eye to reveal his sharingan, and with that he attacked. After drawing a kunai, Kakashi had taken, surprisingly slow to react, Conrí prisoner, attempting to use him as a ransom for The Fifth, he watched his opponent with his sharingan.

"My first mission to the mainland, I thought it'd be boring" Conrí giggled to himself as he shrugged and shook is head to the situation, "why couldn't I have been a teacher, I'm good with kids, well they have the mentality of kids anyway." Reacting to Kakashi's move, Conall grabbed The Fifth around the neck with his arm and held a Kunai to her in an attempt to make a stalemate; Ran drew her short katana and took her stance, watching Kakashi's sharingan with unblinking eyes. Naruto drew his Kunai and jumped back to try and figure out some way of helping The Fifth.

The stalemate stayed for some time, no one spoke, they stood in the same position for some time, waiting for their tactic's conditions to be met, and it all rode on whose conditions were met first.

One set of conditions were met, and the tables turned considerably, the blood ninja were now all on the same side, near the gate, facing inwards at Naruto, standing alone against the five. Kakashi had realized what happened rather quickly, however this didn't help him figure out how it had happened, he was now standing in the exact position he was before, holding his kunai in the exact same place, yet, there was no sign of Conrí and even more surprising Ran was stood behind him, with her short katana against his throat.

"I can't believe it" the blood ninja Conrí stood leant up against the leaf village gate, free of Kakashi's grasp, and he appeared to be rather disappointed at Kakashi, "I heard you were at least one, if not the best Jonin here, and you didn't even realize your biggest weakness" Conrí stood up right again and carried on, "your sharingan sees and immediately understands any Genjutsu, Ninjutsu or Taijutsu, in the case of Gen and Ninjutsu it can even copy them, however, it is still just an eye, therefore you have to blink."

"Didn't you ever wonder why Conrí kept calling me Blink?" Ran completed the sentence for him, explaining the rest of what transpired, "I can move so fast that you blink, and it's all over". That's the true weakness of the Sharingan. If you blink you can't see for a couple of hundred milliseconds, which is all I need.

Naruto had been trying to figure out a way to free the Hokage and Kakashi. The wind blew the tree leaves gently to the floor, allowing them to sway from side to side first. Naruto found his plan. Quickly he acted, releasing hundreds of shadow clones with his multi shadow clone jutsu, the clones spread into the air, a vast dome was created that blocked off the sunlight and spread thick with Naruto and kunai. The Blood ninja swordsmen brought out their swords for the first time, and with a simple slash of the air, destroyed the Naruto clones. As the smoke cleared even more leaves fell from the trees and gave the area a feeling of tranquillity, even in the midst of such a battle.

The stand-off was long winded, more leaves slowly para-sailed to the ground and even more than that flew freely. Suddenly Kakashi realized Naruto's plan and not a second too soon, as the leaves had now surrounded them, Naruto's plan was about to begin. The Blood Chunin sighed as a sign of release, "maybe now we can simply talk". As he began to move forward Naruto's plan revealed itself. Suddenly the leaves around the Blood ninja transformed into Naruto clones, "didn't you realize, there's no wind", Naruto's clones all explained as they appeared, rushing the blood ninja before they could do anything. In the confusion Kakashi and The Fifth managed to escape and make it back to Naruto.

Naruto's cloned had easily been dispatched by now, the blood ninja Conall, who hadn't moved even though he was the target of Naruto's attack stood, shivering on the spot with his head held down, covered in the shadow of his gear.

Conall's head lifted slowly then leaned slightly to the left, the expression visible on his face was just like that on Ran's when she was kicked by The Fifth, his grin spread across his face and his eye's opened wide. His sights turned on Naruto and he stuttered in pure excitement, "T…that was awesome," his voice bled out of his mouth as he began to shiver once again, "are you sure y…your not a Chunin?".

With that remark Conall began to cackle madly, he stopped suddenly then made his last remark, "I'll kill you with everything that I am, in a hope that you'll fight me with all you are, Nine-tailed fox!" Conall thrust himself forward with all of his might, leaving a huge sandstorm in his wake.

"Shit, Conall's gone off the deep end, again" Ran spoke, not even seeming to be surprised by her comrade's lack of self-control, "it's Atlantis all over again, we do tend to have a problem when it comes to self-control."

"Atlantis? Again? Please tell me this isn't a common occurrence, I've only just started working with you off the island and now I discover your all psycho," Conrí stepped forward and place his hand firmly on his face, "this sucks!"

"Like you're not psychotic" Ran replied defensively, and then spoke, as if quoting an old proverb, "Black Rose Conrí, he who killed entire civilizations without even touching them" Ran looked around at the village with a sense of victory, then elaborated, "Shouldn't we tell what the real reason for the outbreak of the Great War between the ninja villages was? Or should I say who?"

"You shut up!" Conrí reached his arm out fully, grabbing Ran's head in his hand and beginning to squeeze, "that was a long time ago! I'm different now, better!" Conrí's face showed pure hatred as he began to squeeze the life out of his comrade. Suddenly he lifted his head and the hatred left his eyes, he dropped Ran and quickly darted in front of Conall's charge. "Unfortunately we are in no position to control our actions my friend, we must leave" Conrí's reason made no sense to the blood ninja Conall, who carried on charging.

"Only after I kill him, the boy's got to die, it'll be fun I promise!" Conall was clearly not in his the calm frame of mind he had displayed at first.

Conrí darted forward, striking his ally in the stomach and leaving a spray of blood from his mouth all over the floor, "I'm sorry but we cannot go on like this, I don't want us to destroy this place, we will have to leave."

The Hokage, Kakashi and Naruto had no idea what was going on, they had not heard much of the conversation. They had prepared themselves for Conall's attack, only to see it be stopped by Conrí, and him mutter something about "destroying the place". However what they had noticed was Conrí's arms, although his cloak hid the main part of his body, shoulders and legs he had flashed his arms, twice now, they were covered in chains, that were rapped around and around until they disappeared into the shadow of his cloak. At the end of these chains, near his wrists, were two clasps that appeared to hold them onto his arms so firmly that they had cut him repeatedly.

"You won't destroy us that easily," The Hokage spoke, asserting her authority and preparing for her next attack, "we won't go down without a fight!"

"Huh?" Conrí looked at them once again with the same warm, welcoming smile, his unconscious comrade in his hands, and a rather confused look in his eyes, "why would we want to destroy the leaf village? That would be evil. I don't look evil do I? Be honest."

The Leaf ninja took this as a mocking response and upped their guard, looking for any signs of movement.

The blood ninja Ran sighed at Conrí stupid question "let me handle this" Ran slid into place in front of Conrí, with her short Katana drawn and her feet placed precisely in place, "We're leaving now, and we'll carry on this little extermination in three weeks time."

"But it's a mission of peace, a misunderstanding, we were meant to…" Before Conrí could finish his sentence Ran grabbed his arm and dragged hi into the shadow of the leaf village forest.

Before she went Ran looked back with her original excitable look and shouted, "THREE WEEKS TIME! BE READY".

Conall also ran off into the darkness. The two swordsmen, who seemed strangely peaceful, bowed to the leaf shinobi then followed their comrades off into the darkness.

"Three weeks until they come back again" The Fifth stood in utter confusion of what just happened.

"We should help the Chunin Madam Hokage" Kakashi's voice came from beside her, he had put away his sharingan and bent down to tend to the injured Chunin below him, "they are the one's who need us now".

The Hokage sighed in agreement and ran to the nearest Chunin, checking for injuries. Surprisingly, each Chunin had only one injury, where they were struck and knocked unconscious, they woke up on touch and each began to move after five minutes of being awoken, the damage done was minimal considering, only seven buildings were destroyed, six by the lightening storm and only one by the Blood ninja themselves.

Naruto looked up at the sky in deep thought, "only three weeks until they return, and then what?"


	3. The Return! Blood Spilled!

Three weeks time past surprisingly quickly in the village, the impending threat of the blood ninja had returned. Luckily, no one was hurt last time, and the damage done to the village was minimal, in the three weeks The Fifth had re-called all available ninja, only sending out a few on missions close by. Naruto had spent his weeks mastering the few jutsu he knew as Jiraiya only returned on the very last day and was too tired to even cross the threshold into the village itself, he had to be dragged in by Naruto and some Chunin.

The Anbu Black ops had been away dealing with yet another prison escape and trying to deal with a certain rogue ninja that Naruto would like to get his hands on. However, after the blood ninja made their presence known the Anbu were stationed on shifts around the gate and wall to protect the leaf village and the villagers. There were eight teams of four on at all times, two squads on the main gate, one disguised as Chunin and the other five were evenly and strategically placed along the wall.

Today, however, there were more than usual, ten Anbu Black ops teams were placed around the outer defences, this time five were at the gates and four of them were hidden, disguised as villagers, Chunin and even academy students. The normal gate Chunin, along with the villagers who normally work around the gate were actually further back, they had been evacuated to a safe radius.

Even Naruto had been restrained from going up to the gate; The Fifth believed he would get in the way. Shikamaru, along with his squad and the other Genin and Chunin squads were making constant sweeps of the village, looking for anyone who could be considered suspicious and making sure all of the villagers were behind the evacuation radius.

Kiba, Hinata and Shino were being used as messengers between the Anbu and The Fifth, even over such a short distance the message would require three Genin, as anything could happen to them.

In the hallways of the Hokage's building a lone Anbu walked, casually and slowly towards the main exit, he passed many other ninja running as fast as possible to get to the Hokage or back out to fulfil their tasks, however, he stays silent and cautious as they pass, looking back at them as he walked away, checking that they didn't suspect anything.

Back at the gate to the village there was no change, the only movement going on was the Academy students practising kunai training and basic ninjutsu, a sign had been hammered into the ground every mile for three miles in front of the leaf village, it said:

_Beware: The leaf village is off limits to any traders or tourists for the time being._

_**Enter at your own risk!**_

Outside the village, only a few feet before the sign posts, a familiar visitor was approaching. Slowly he walked towards the village, the excitable grin on his face and his melodious Humming revealed his anxiousness, like a little schoolboy getting home from school he skipped and hummed excitedly.

Suddenly he stopped, looking at the sign that lie before him and read it, "Beware… Off limits! Risk!" the visitor's grin grew and he continued to talk to himself, "it's a surprise party, but… kind of defeats the point, telling me before hand though? Huh?" Looking around to see if anyone was going to respond he carried on humming and skipping happily.

Back in the village, the Chunin that were sent out to check for the blood Chunin reported back, passing the lone Anbu member on their way to The Fifth. The lone Anbu picked up pace as he headed towards the exit, steadily building into a run as the sunlight began to beam on him from overhead.

Suddenly the lone Anbu jumped up onto the roofs of the buildings and sped away towards the front gate, not a strange site to most of the villagers walking around, who had seen the increased security as a good thing, but to a group of patrolling Chunin, a single Anbu wondering around without any other squad members in times of increased security was very strange.

The Chunin squad followed the lone Anbu as he headed for the gate. The Anbu's speed was nothing incredibly overwhelming; in fact it was Chunin level and his ninja abilities didn't seem to be much more than academy student level as he had not noticed the large group of Chunin, even though they had followed him for some time by now.

The lone Anbu had finally arrived at the gate, shortly followed by the Chunin squad. The lone Anbu began to walk casually towards the gate.

The leader of the pursuing Chunin squad stopped and then spoke, "Halt! Kakashi told us to be on the lookout for you!" The lone Anbu turned around nervously, hoping he hadn't been found out and the Chunin squad leader pointed at him and spoke again, "Clever masquerading as a leaf Anbu, but leaf Anbu travel in squads of four!"

The Anbu had turned around and was trying to figure a way to escape when, suddenly, a cloud of smoke surrounded him.

"Don't even try it!" The Chunin squad leader ordered the smoke-surrounded Anbu, "We know all your tricks! Naruto!" As the smoke cleared, Naruto's blonde hair and classic expression became obvious to everyone. "We'll take you back now, you're just too much of a handful Naruto just give it a rest".

At the second signpost outside the village, the familiar visitor approached, still humming the same tune he walked, looking around at the nearby trees and bushes, watching happily as the unidentified rogue ninja circled him menacingly.

In an instance, one of the ninja broke the ranks and made a dash for his throat. With the same anxious grin as before, the visitor span on his heel and grabbed the ninja's wrist with his left hand, whilst keeping his right hand well hidden from sight. The rattle of chains came as no surprise to the unidentified ninja, their headbands had been sanded smooth so that their village would remain hidden, even though it was obvious to the visitor who they were and what village was trying to attack him.

Still clenching the ninja's wrist the visitor began his move, taking his cloak with his chain-covered right arm, he threw his cloak into the air, and the crater that was caused when it landed could be felt all the way in the leaf village, the ninja all stopped and stared at the giant dust cloud that had been created.

Whilst they were staring at the crater, Naruto had slipped away from the Chunin and was headed towards the main gates which were now closed and heavily reinforced with giant wooden beams. The Anbu all stood, lined up on top of the wall and closed gate, arms folded they stared out into the distance, waiting for any sign of the blood ninja.

Outside the village, the unidentified ninja stood, gazing in shock and disbelief at the visitor's clothing. As clear as day, he stood, holding the ninja that attacked him by the wrist, not letting go as he squirms for freedom, stabbing at his capturer's hand with a kunai. The visitor wore a black, spiked dogs collar, from is led four thick, black-steel chains, each of these spread off. Two of the chains went down and spiralled down his body and then on to wrap around his legs, covering every inch of them in chain, the other two spiralled around his arms, and at the end of each limb was a black spiked bracelet, similar to the collar he wore. Through the chain links, the visitor wore a sleeveless black shirt, and black trousers, his arms showed through the chains and appeared to be brutally scared, forcing through his collar were also large, deep scars.

Each of these chains clearly weighed more than any of the ninja around him could even lift; the cloak wasn't the only weighted clothing he wore. The ninja in the visitor's hand began to struggle even more to escape. The visitor's grasp tightened as his wounds bled out, taking some chain length from the thick maze of chains surrounded his body, the visitor tied up the captured ninja. With both his hands free he began to make hand signs.

The unidentified ninja surrounding him saw this and made their move, it was to no prevail as the chains began to move and lash out, savagely striking the attacking ninja and throwing them to the ground where they had attacked from.

The visitor's face dropped as he became serious in the heat of the battle, taking one step forward he finished his hand sands and made a familiar move, "sand coffin, SAND BURRIEL!" shouting the attack name his eyes widened and arm thrust forward with an aggressive claw-like hand, and then a clenched fist.

Realizing the hand movement the unidentified ninjas eyes widened as they jumped into the air to avoid the oncoming attack.

After finishing his series of hand signs the Visitor grinned to himself in amusement of his own goofy antics, "got-cha!" the unidentified shinobi realized that there was no sand around them, in fact the only person ever to be able to use the technique was Gaara, and it's not something anyone can learn. Realizing this they all landed back down, embarrassed by their Genin-level mistake.

However, the realization came too late for the ninja, the visitor's true jutsu was ready and so he began, "I'm sorry, but for this jutsu a sacrifice is required, and you did volunteer." Grabbing his captive's head in the palm of his hand, the visitor exclaimed his jutsu, "Art of the Blood, Soul Binding Jutsu, Serpent Cain!" with the last almighty shout the jutsu began its dramatic process.

The visitor's grip tightened around the skull of the unidentified ninja that he had captured, suddenly the captive's body burst into flames, slowly melting away the flesh of the skin, organs and eyeballs, leaving only the charred skeleton and the visitor's scolded hand. The visitor dropped the skeleton of his sacrifice from the grasp of his right arm, then, with his left unravelled some of the chain that encased his body, hurling the seven pieces of chain onto the ground in front of him.

Upon seeing the desecrated corpse of his ally the remaining three ninja of the sacrifice's squad charged relentlessly at his murderer, "You bastard! You'll pay for that" the three yelled out anguished threats as they charged.

The blood of the ninja splattered across the floor as the once lifeless chains jumped up to fulfil their purpose. Three of the chains had constricted the attacking ninja, piercing them with a newly formed, spiked tail. Along with the tail, a head had formed, still made of the black steel, these large snakes were completely mobile, and ready to kill.

The body's of the three unidentified ninja dropped down, creating a puddle of blood where they had fell, the snakes that had bound and killed them were now rigid and lifeless, after fulfilling their duty they had no reason for existing any longer.

"This jutsu uses the charka of the sacrificed person, combined with that of the animal spirit infused with the object to give it a temporary form, as well as an objective, chosen by the user of the jutsu" the visitor lifted up his head from it's downward facing position to reveal the excited grin on his face, "I have set the snake spirit within each of these chains the objective of killing each of you, one snake is set to each person, they are able to tell the difference between clones and the original target, so resistance is futile against them." Turning his attention to the sky, the visitor relaxed his face and his grin to an expression of disappointment and boredom, "so just die quickly, this is a real nuisance." With that the snakes tunnelled underground.

With the last comment the remaining four unidentified ninja began their attack, two of them disappeared into the forest, whilst the other two went for an all-or-nothing head on attack. Suddenly the manoeuvre changed the two who had gone for an all out attack jumped back and threw smoke bombs around the unimpressed visitor, who sat down in absolute boredom. The two ninja who had disappeared off into the forest came quickly from either side of the visitor, attempting to catch him off guard; they jumped into the thick grey smoke.

Screams pierced the silence of the smoke, sending a chill up the spines of the two remaining unidentified ninja. As the smoke and screams cleared, the drip of blood could be heard as clearly as the screams themselves, the visitor stood, bathed in blood, standing perfectly still in the middle of the smoke, looking down at the ground in disbelief.

"I…I can't believe how… how overly crap you guys are!" the visitor looked up with an angry look on his face, "you guys are suppose to be the Jonin of the village hidden in the clouds!" the two remaining ninja stared in disbelief at their comrades, who had been impaled by the large serpent chains that the visitor had created.

Still in their attacking stances, the ninja looked frozen in time, their was no warning of the attack, no time for their brains to react to the pain or the noises, all they could do was scream out of the terror. Blood ran down the cold black steel as it glimmered in the light of the sun, which beamed from the direction of the village down onto the scene.

The visitor sighed disappointedly, "just die already" with that comment he snapped his figures as if to order the final command to his remaining two minions. The strike was firm and quick, leaving no time to react yet plenty of time to regret, the serpent chains leapt from underground tail-first into the remaining two ninja. The assassination attempt had failed, and the visitor was not impressed, in fact, he was disappointed at the attempt made on his life, with an angry aura irradiating from his blood red eyes, he picked up his cloak and moved on, towards the village hidden in the leaves.

The gory display that had just taken place was seen by people throughout the village hidden in the leaves, even to those further back and especially well by those up in the cliffs, seeking shelter from this new danger. The entire village was silent, even though some villagers remained hard at work, trying to fix the devastation caused by the storm from the last time the Blood Chunin visited the village. There were no smiles. There was no laugher. There were no complaints. This usually full of life scene, that had been done so many times before with usual friendly grins and helpful attitudes was being done by the same villagers as always, but not with the same attitude. They lifted heavy loads, nailed wood to buildings and set up scaffolding for the next stage of repairs, all completely silently.

This was because they all knew that even worse destruction was about to come, this would be a battle that would take the lives of many shinobi, from both sides, without fail.

Just as three weeks ago, a large storm had slowly crept up on the village, and just as then, the Hokage stood at her window, arms folded, waiting for the certain destruction that it represented. Shizune was rushing around with the other shinobi, trying to get the Medical Core prepared for a wave of casualties.

She ran into the main office franticly, trying to catch her breath, even though her air supply was being cut off from holding her clipboard too tightly in a desperate effort to keep it safe, and to not allow anything to fall from it. With the clipboard in one hand and a pen in the other she corrected her posture and began:

"Lady Hokage! All of the Medical Core's orders have been taken care of, the beds have been changed and all non-critical patients have been evacuated from the area, up to the emergency shelter with the rest of the non-essential personnel. The Spare rooms have been cleared, and all doctors have been given their assigned rooms and equipment. Do you have any more orders, my lady" Shizune reported the situation, reading the check-list from her clipboard.

Without moving anything except her mouth, The Fifth replied, only showing her intense concentration and serious attitude towards the events and the planning: "Good work Shizune, go get ready for battle, you will be leading Field Medic Squad 9 and organising the withdrawal of any injured shinobi from the battle field".

Without wasting a moment, Shizune was gone, hastily heading towards her gear.

Meanwhile, back on the trail leading to the village, Conrí, the black haired, young Blood Chunin, had finished his fight with the assassins from the Village hidden in the Clouds, even though there was no recognisable symbol on their headband, he had managed to deduce their origin. He gathered his remaining chains from the attack, once again correcting his look of disappointment and anger, replacing it with the familiar childish grin, and heading on, towards the village.

Back in the Leaf Village, Team 7 had been spying on the approaching Conrí for some time, Hinata using her Byakugan and Kiba and Akamaru using their heightened hearing to get a good idea of what was being said, just long enough to witness the brutal slaughter of 8 highly-skilled shinobi in barely any time at all. Kiba had also overheard the identity of these assassins, because of Conrí's conversation with them.

"Those assassins are from the Cloud Village, that Blood Bastard just said so himself! What would Cloud Shinobi want with him? He's only attacked us so far hasn't he?" Kiba reported the only useful information he had got out of his hearing, his voice was rough, untamed and showed too many of his emotions, it was easy to tell that this visitor worried him.

Shino looked up, towards the oncoming storm, now almost completely overhead, staring up at it through his glasses as if trying to figure out what was going to happen just from the clouds. "The last time he visited, he commented on our shinobi being superior to those from the other villages, although he still said he was disappointed, this may indicate that either he personally or other blood shinobi have visited some of the other villages, if so this may be retaliation from those villages, we should expect to see more similar attempts, but don't depend on them". His voice was the same as always, quiet, calm and controlled, he spoke from underneath the collar of his jacket, not showing any emotion on even a hint of stress towards this immanent battle.

"D..Do you think we can win?" The frail voice of Hinata disturbed the deep tension.

"Of course we can! Have you seen how many highly-skilled shinobi there are around, 10 Anbu Black Ops squads, not to mention we have a few scattered Jonin and Lady Hokage herself!" Kiba had stood up, making an enthusiastic statement of indestructibility in his usual manner.

"We would also have Master Jiraiya as well, however, it seems he was so busy with work that he had to rush out of the village before anyone could tell him about the attack, it would have been extremely important to have him in such an important battle. He slipped out at night, no one knows when or where he has gone off to", Shino's news did not help the situation, now not even Kiba had a reply.

Conrí was approaching the front gates by now, as he did so he saw no shinobi positioned to protect them, there were only the trees, blowing in the now ferocious winds that seemed to rise from the demonic character as he flowed swiftly towards them, the rigidly placed sign post, painted hastily and set up in such a hurry that the running colours had dribbled down the wooden frame. The only thing that bothered Conrí by this was the urge to straighten it, as the post was tilted, ever so slightly to the left. His smile shrank as he noticed this, trying to ignore it he looked away, concentrating on the large wooden gates before him. The Blood Chunin slowed himself. As if distracted by the writing on the gates.

_Entry to the Village Hidden in the Leaves is_

_**STRICTLY FORBIDDEN!**_

_until further notice._

Tilting his head to the side, and wearing a confused expression as if wondering who they were trying to keep out, the childish shinobi approached further, slowing down even more to admire the scenery.

It was clear to Hinata and all of the leaf shinobi positioned within viewing range that he was not taking this seriously, they all felt uneasy by this, being unable to read their target's abilities or intentions frustrated them, they didn't show it, not even Hinata, as they were concentrating all of their effort into watching the approaching shinobi, and the doom he represented.

Conrí now stood at the bottom of the gate, staring up intently with a childish look of amusement at the sheer size of the leaf village gate, muttering to himself "What are they trying to keep out? Giants? C'mon I usually enjoy overkill but this is just insane." Rolling his eyes at the spoken-aloud though, he sighed, took a deep breath and shouted: "OK! You can open the gate now, it's me, Conrí!" He waited excitedly for a reply, when none came his expression fell and turned into a look of excitement.

"FINE! I'LL LET MYSELF IN!"

With a menacing grin, he raised his right arm out of his cloak until it was facing the gate and sighed, preparing himself for what was to come.


End file.
